1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tire information providing method and an apparatus thereof capable of providing on-target tire information that is truly wanted by the customer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, provision of tire information is mostly unilaterally directed from tire manufacturers to customers. Tire manufacturers provide information on riding comfort, sport performance, wet performance, or silence of respective tires through media such as TV commercials, newspapers, magazines, catalogues or the Internet.
However, what concerns the-customer most is not general information of tires but the degree of improvements of performance when certain tires are attached to one's own vehicle. In other words, information related to tires that a customer truly desires depends entirely from customer to customer. More particularly, the following pieces of information are being desired.
(1) While I am currently wearing wheels A and tires A on my vehicle A, I want to know the change in riding comfort when the tires are changed to tires B, C or D . . . .
(2) While I am currently wearing wheels A and tires A on my vehicle A, I want to know which tires I should choose to improve the wet performance.
(3) While I am currently wearing wheels A and tires A on my vehicle A, I want to know the safety when running on a snowy road with this combination.
(4) While I am currently wearing wheels A and tires A on my vehicle A, I want to know how the running performance changes when I change to vehicle B.
It was conventionally quite difficult to provide such pieces of information that meet individual requests of customers. The only possible method was to actually make a test drive. However, such a method is not realistic since it will require much trouble and time to customers, tire manufactures or tire sales offices. Moreover, such tests are largely dependent on feeling and thus lack in objectivity.